overture
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
overture
n 1: orchestral music played at the beginning of an opera or
oratorio
2: something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what
follows; "training is a necessary preliminary to employment";
"drinks were the overture to dinner" [syn: {preliminary},
{overture}, {prelude}]
3: a tentative suggestion designed to elicit the reactions of
others; "she rejected his advances" [syn: {overture},
{advance}, {approach}, {feeler}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Overture \O"ver*ture\, [OF. overture, F. ouverture, fr. OF.
ovrir, F. ouvrir. See {Overt}.]
1. An opening or aperture; a recess; a chamber. [Obs.]
--Spenser. "The cave's inmost overture." --Chapman.
[1913 Webster]
2. Disclosure; discovery; revelation. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
It was he
That made the overture of thy treasons to us.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. A proposal; an offer; a proposition formally submitted for
consideration, acceptance, or rejection. "The great
overture of the gospel." --Barrow.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Mus.) A composition, for a full orchestra, designed as an
introduction to an oratorio, opera, or ballet, or as an
independent piece; -- called in the latter case a {concert
overture}.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
50 Moby Thesaurus words for "overture":
Vorspiel, advance, approach, asking price, avant-propos, bid,
breakthrough, concert overture, curtain raiser, descant,
dramatic overture, exordium, feeler, foreword, front matter,
frontispiece, innovation, introduction, invitation, leap, offer,
offering, operatic overture, overtures, postulate, preamble,
preface, prefix, prefixture, preliminary, preliminary approach,
prelude, premise, presentation, presupposition, proem, proffer,
prolegomena, prolegomenon, prolepsis, prologue, proposal,
proposition, protasis, submission, tender, tentative approach,
vamp, verse, voluntary
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